1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to dental devices, and in particular, to dental devices used for extracting teeth.
2. Description of the Related Art
A number of prior art devices exist for the purpose of extracting a tooth or removing a dental prosthesis, crowns and the like. The use of such devices to extract teeth is often associated with pain and unpleasantness. Part of the pain originates from the simple tools that dentists currently use to extract teeth. Specifically, the forceps and elevators that are currently used by dentists require brute force to be applied by the dentist in removing the tooth. This results in unnecessary pain and discomfort, as the tooth must be worked out, and often the use of such tools results in damage to the socket of the extracted tooth.
Attempts have been made to overcome the drawback of using forceps and elevators. For example, a tooth extractor system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,454 issued to Lococo, which utilizes a tooth engaging grip means selectively connectable to a lever which, in turn, is rested against a base normally located on a tooth or teeth adjacent the tooth root to be extracted. This prior art tooth extractor system had the advantage of requiring less physical power from the dentist, thus enabling a more accurate operation with reduced damage of the socket of the extracted tooth.
However, the tooth extractor system described in the '454 patent suffered from a relatively complex assembly of parts that would have limited its usefulness. The attachment of the tooth engaging grip means to a tooth to be extracted and the placement of the separate base component on the adjacent tooth would have required substantial skill on the part of the dentist to position the tools and complete the procedure. For at least these reasons and perhaps others, the tooth extractor system described in the '454 patent apparently did not become widely established on the market.
Various other dental forceps or so-called “fulcrum forceps” also exist in the prior art, which have found only limited success in the market. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,147,580 issued to Turner, U.S. Pat. No. 2,430,271 issued to Brantley, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,196 issued to Rico all disclose tooth extractor devices that use a fulcrum in conjunction with either a tooth clamp or a tooth root screw to facilitate removing a tooth or a tooth root from a patient. However, none of these devices provide an acceptable tool for simplifying the tooth extraction procedure and minimizing pain and unpleasantness as a tooth is worked out.
There is a need in the industry for an improved tooth extraction device to overcome these and other problems associated with the prior art.